— Giants 3, Reds 0
Blake Snell threw a 114-pitch no-hitter, giving up only three walks.
Snell induced 21 whiffs on 51 Cincinnati swings.
It was Snell’s first complete game in 202 major league starts.
— Something to think about when Caleb Williams starts at QB for the Bears against the Titans in Week 1: since 2003, QB’s drafted #1 overall are 0-14-1 SU/1-14 ATS in their first NFL start.
Listening to the ESPN broadcast Thursday night, I was wondering if Williams was going to get inducted into the Hall of Fame before he left Canton this weekend.
USC went 1-5 in Williams’ last six games LY, with a minus-5 turnover ratio; when he skipped the Trojans’ bowl game, they won 42-28 without him.
— Future Hall of Fame coach Tom Coughlin was on the field this week with the Las Vegas Raiders, as they went thru training camp. 77-year old Coughlin was Raider coach Antonio Pierce’s head coach when Pierce played with the Giants during his NFL career.
— NFL teams with the biggest dead salary cap charges this year:
$68M- Broncos
$61M- Bills
$57M- Vikings
$55M- Buccaneers
$54M- Chargers
— Promising news for the Houston Texans: Five of the last seven rookie QB’s who won a playoff game also won a playoff game the next year.
— Active NFL head coaches who’ve won 60%+ of their games, and a Super Bowl:
Andy Reid
Sean Payton
Sean McVay
Mike Tomlin
John Harbaugh
— Right now, it appears that the Missouri Tigers have one of the easiest schedules in the country this college football season. Mizzou is a double digit favorite in eight of their 12 games; they’re favored by 14+ points in seven games.
— Reasons for the new kickoff rule in the NFL:
Last year, only 22% of kickoffs were returned.
Kickoffs resulted in a lot of injuries; having players start the plays closer together figures to lessen that number.
— Famous birthdays, August 3rd:
Martin Sheen, 84
Lance Alworth, 84
Mike Gminski, 65
Kevin Elster, 60
Todd Christensen, 58
Tom Brady, 47
Matt Joyce, 40
Todd Gurley, 30
Zac Gallen, 29
— No major league teams are on pace to win 100 games this season; the last time (other than 2020) that no MLB teams won 100+ games in a season was 2014.
— Cubs 6, Cardinals 3
Erick Fedde gave up five runs in 5 IP, in his Cardinal debut.
Weird Stat of the Day: If you bet on baseball, you can bet on the score after 5 innings; Fedde started 22 games for the White Sox, who are a uniquely bad team this year, but when Fedde was on the hill. Chicago was 11-7-4 in the first five innings.
— When the Cubs scored three runs in the 9th inning to beat St Louis 5-4 Thursday night, it ended a streak where the Cubs had lost 53 straight games when they trailed by 2+ runs in the 9th inning or in extra innings.
— This is the first time ever that two rookies have hit for the cycle in the same season; Wyatt Langford of Texas, Xavier Edwards of the Marlins.
— Diamondbacks 9, Pirates 8
Josh Bell homered twice in his Arizona debut.
Oneil Cruz went 5-5 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored in a losing cause.
— Red Sox 11, Rangers 6
Wilyer Abreu went 3-5 with 3 RBI; he homered and doubled.
Corey Seager went 3-3 with two home runs for Texas.
— Baseball injuries:
Orioles’ 2B Jordan Westburg broke his hand, is on the IL.
Angels’ CF Mike Trout (knee) is out for the year.
Trout’s games played the last few years:
2021- 36 games
2022- 119 games
2023- 82 games
2024- 29 games…….not ideal. Trout will be 33 Wednesday.
— When you think about the baseball draft, remember that great players come from all over:
Andre Dawson was an 11th round pick
Ryne Sandberg was a 20th round pick
Jim Thome was a 13th round pick
Albert Pujols was a 13th round pick……all four of those guys are in the Hall of Fame.
